Boulder City welcomes city manager

Ned Thomas started his role as Boulder City’s new city manager this week, just in time to attend a special City Council meeting on the city’s 2026 fiscal year budget.

Opening the meeting, Mayor Joe Hardy quipped, “It’s probably reasonable to introduce the new city manager who is sitting here with us (while) the former acting city manager is relaxing.”

Community Development Director Michael Mays has served as acting city manager since Taylour Tedder’s departure on May 8, 2024. He served in the same position for about a year after a previous city council fired then-manager Al Noyola in 2020, meaning that Mays has acted as city manager for almost two of the past four and a half years.

Mays essentially did both jobs (again) for almost a year. In a release announcing that Thomas was starting the job Tuesday, Hardy said, “I truly appreciate the hard work Michael has done over the past 11 months, working extra hours and weekends to keep pace with the additional workload. I thank him for his dedication and commitment to the residents of Boulder City.”

Thomas was selected from more than 100 candidates after a six-month national search with WBCP Inc., an executive municipal recruiting firm. He has three decades of experience in municipal government and leadership roles. Until last week, Thomas served as city manager in Milpitas, California, a city north of San Jose with 81,000 residents. He traveled back and forth for the past few years from his family’s home in Henderson.

“I have been waiting and watching for the right opportunity to become available in Southern Nevada, and I was thrilled to hear about the city manager position in Boulder City,” he said in the same press release.

The city charter requires the city manager live in Boulder City; but last year, the council amended its initial contract to give Thomas one year to move and establish residency.

“I am excited about living and working in a close-knit community with such a unique and interesting history,” said Thomas. “Making personal connections is vitally important to my success as a city manager, and I want to hear a variety of perspectives from Boulder City residents, business owners, employees, and community leaders. I plan to visit every department and facility in the city to meet the staff and hear their concerns. I will also visit community organizations and businesses to hear their thoughts on city services and operations.”

While Councilmember Steve Walton, addressed a question to staff and asked if Thomas wanted to weigh in, the new manager did not speak during the meeting, which was led by Finance Director Cynthia Sneed and Budget Director Angela Mananon.

Sneed started things off saying, “I am very pleased to put forward a tentative budget. It’s a balanced budget due to a lot of hard work by all the department heads.” The city is mandated to keep a balanced budget in its charter. Per Sneed, the initial budget came in heavy on the expense side and department heads all had to trim back their requests.

This is just the beginning of the process for setting the budget. On April 22, the proposed budget will be reviewed in the council’s regularly-scheduled meeting and a public hearing on the budget is scheduled for the May 27 meeting when the final budget will also be voted on and adopted.